Sepitcflesh

By Júlio Valada on Apr 10, 2011 in Cd Review | 0 comments

Album: The Great Mass
Label: Season Of Mist
Tracks: 10
Release Date: April 18th
Lenght: 43′ 42″

Riff Score: 9.0/10

Sepitcflesh (formerly Septic Flesh) are one of the longest running and more famous bands to ever come out of Greece. Together with Rotting Christ they fight for the throne of the best band of the beautiful Hellenic country, and now Septicflesh bring their new album to up the ante with their competitors.

Septicflesh play death metal since their inception but to classify them as another death metal band would be ludicrous. They never were ones of being contempt with following the rules of what makes for typical death metal, instead opting for creating their own sound and carving their particular niche in the metal world with their amazing creativity and uniqueness. Always a band willing to explore new sounds and classical influences, they often incorporate outside elements like soprano vocals and orchestral arrangements to compliment their massive sound. I don’t see the term “symphonic death metal” tossed around usually but it wouldn’t be too far from reality to describe Septciflesh’s sound as that.

If Communion showed that the full implementation of orchestral arrangements and operatic segments was no experimentation but rather a way of evolving, then The Great Mass is going to be the album that cements this approach to death metal as one pioneered and mastered by the Greeks. Few if any bands in the world dare to venture into this type of compositions, henceforth making Septicflesh a very unique and refreshing entity in the metal world. With the help of the Filmharmonic Orchestra of Prague this album is beautifully enhanced in its symphonic parts, resembling a film score at times and one that would prove worthy of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy with much ease.

A soothing chant welcomes us into this work followed closely by the string section and accompanied by the bass section (contrabass I believe), all of this in a spine-chilling crescendo that finally unleashes Seth’s demonic gutturals. The song proceeds with the intertwining of the overture and bursts of brutal blasting and hellish growls until the mid-section enters with its harmonizing beautiful lead accompanied by Sotiris’ haunting clean vocals. The riff keeps being repeated by all the stringed instruments until the song reaches its end. That was “The Vampire Of Nazareth” the advance song for the album, and one can understand why as this imbues you with the will to listen to the rest of the album right away!

The album proceeds with mixing the aspects present in the first song over and over again, graced also with the presence of some gothic elements. Many times during the album, in particular during the more melodic breaks and leads, you can witness a romanticized sense of songwriting that clearly touches gothic metal. Just listen to the opening of “Pyramid God” with its amazing opening riff accompanied by violins in another crescendo until that first break where you’re compelled to bang your head as if your life depended on that. It’s a rather simple composition for the first minutes, consisting of variations of the main riff, but it’s very effective. Around the 3 minute mark it goes “out there” in a percussion pattern which gives it a more progressive and epic touch, only so Seth closes it again with his creepy vocal delivery. Probably the best song in the album along with the following “Five-Pointed Star” with its Eastern vibe on the guitars and middle thrashing section, were the drums simply take the front and leave you astounded. And then that riff keeps you banging your head even if you don’t want to. It compels you to do so and you can only comply! The sounds that follow evoke images of slaves building a pyramid in the shores of the Nile but the violins quickly bring the thrashing section again. It closes, again with the sounds of slave whips and stone being hammered. All this is of course brilliantly executed, with the orchestra showing themselves as a natural part of the band.

The more relaxed part of the album is then at hand with compositions like “Oceans Of Grey” with weeping violins and a very catchy middle section, rendered by flutes (or clarinets maybe?!) and operatic vocals, and “The Undead Keep Dreaming” with its slow pace and a crushing chorus as if it was pronounced by the Gods of the Underworld themselves. Sotiris makes again use of his clean vocals and it only complements the dense atmosphere present in this song. The use of orchestral parts is never gone and they always feel organic in how they adhere and compliment the songs that Septicflesh wrote for this album. Another good example of the amount of influences present in this album is the opening and main riffs of “Rising” with their gothic/melodeath tone, once again brought with the clashing of dual vocals. One of the more melodic and beautiful compositions of the entire album and a high point no doubt.

A few more songs remain and those that do are some of the more schizoid of the album, especially “Mad Architect”. Just listen to its opening and tell me if that doesn’t sound absolutely demented! The string section just goes berserk and the percussion follows ensue with weird tempo changes. It’s only near the two minute mark that you begin to understand a riff on the song but even that is rapidly gone as the string section goes berserk again. Remember the music that plays when the machines attack Zion in the third Matrix film? That’s exactly how this sounds, but even weirder! Therianthrophy has again a gothic and more melodic touch, and proves to be a nice smoothing closer.

The production is the typical Abyss Studios, a fat sound much like the latest works from Hypocrisy or Triptykon, so nothing to say about it. This album is an amazing breath of fresh air in the metal scene as it mixes so much different things and genres and yet manages to sound cohesive and well constructed. Maybe Dimmu Borgir can listen to this and learn something. The only negative point I can find with the album is the fact that during the more progressive/epic parts like in “Pyramid God”, they seem to lose some focus and wander off a bit too much. Nevertheless this is a great album, one that proves that the smaller metal scenes in Europe have a word to say on this globalized world of ours. What’s the best way to describe this album? It’s one which takes everything that’s been done before and reinvents itself in a way that only a band like Septicflesh could do, making it original and fresh. And that says it all.

By: Júlio Valada